| Announced on | Rollout starts | Rollout ends |
|---|---|---|
| May 25, 2022 | To be determined | Nov 27, 2023 |
We're planning to move side conversations to the context panel for a more seamless integration with Agent Workspace.
This announcement includes these sections:
What’s changing, and why?
On Agent Workspace enabled accounts, side conversations will move from their current position above the ticket window to the context panel in Agent Workspace. The context panel is only available when Agent Workspace is enabled. For example, here’s what this will look like:
To see your side conversations, you will need to open a ticket, and then click this side conversation icon in the right sidebar:
Moving side conversations here integrates the functionality more tightly with Agent Workspace, and gives users more room to view and draft messages without obstructing the ticket view thanks to the adjustability of the context panel.
What do I need to do?
Once this change occurs, if Agent Workspace is enabled, you will be able to use side conversations from the context panel. Your side conversations content and notifications will not be affected and you’ll enjoy all the same functionality as before.
If Agent Workspace is not enabled, you are using the standard agent interface instead, and so you are unaffected by this change. No action is needed. Your side conversations will remain in their current position above the ticket window.
59 Comments
Toby Sterrett I would like this enabling for our account please. Thanks!
Toby Sterrett Thank you for your hard work! If possible, we would also like to get a bit earlier access to it on our account as well.
Toby Sterrett could we please also get earlier access? We need it asap in connection with implementation and agent training.
Toby Sterrett, just checking in to see when we will see the tooltip in our context panel to enable this. Thanks!
Hi Toby Sterrett & Lisa Kelly, Any updates on the rollout. The posted timeline advises rollout finishes today...???
Hey everyone, apologies for the continued delays. We're in final feature and deployment reviews right now. In the meantime, I just added more EAP signups to the feature, and I'll add more up until we're able to get to full rollout. If you'd like early access, make sure you sign up and we'll get you in.
Lovely, thanks Toby Sterrett. Just signed up my 2 accounts for the beta. :)
Thanks, Toby Sterrett. For the EAP, if we sign up is this an on/off switch we can turn on in our account? Also, are we able to just deploy it in one of our lower environments to test before having it in our production instance?
Hi, Toby Sterrett, we are getting lots of positive feedback from our customers. It's a much better place for Side Conversations.
We do have one point of feedback. When your message gets long, the Send button can disappear, and you have to scroll down within the Side conversation to find it again. We think it would be good if the Send button (and the rest of the buttons next to) always stay in view, no matter where you are in the Side Conversation. Users are so used to only having to hit the Submit button, that they often forget to hit Send if they have scrolled up a bit in the Side conversation.
If this is not the correct place for this feedback, please let me know!
We have had the same feedback from our teams and submitted it via the feedback form as well. Additionally, format toolbar behaviour is not optimal. Could we move the formatting bar and send button to the top of the conversation window?
It seems that this was NOW rolled out without further notice, breaking the learned workflows of our Agent team (another time...)
The question above
is highly relevant for us. Is there an option to switch back to the old behaviour or would we have to switch forward to a new support tool finally?
Sad
Oliver
Hey Oliver Tietze,
I just checked on this for you and it looks like it can be turned off. In fact, it looks like an admin has to also turn this feature ON to move it to the context panel, it wasn't an automatic rollout/change.
Perhaps another admin in your account switched this on with your knowledge or understanding of the impact it might cause on agents.
Screenshot below of where inside the Admin Centre you can revert this change.
Keep in mind - at some point, Zendesk will probably enforce this change on the account and take away the ability to revert back (much like they did when the new agent workspace was rolled out).
Hope this helps. :)
Best,
Amie
Hello,
I have checked the new location of Side Conversations in one of our Sandbox environments. Although the new position looks quite fine, I miss a lot the indicator/s that there is a new message or an update in a side conversation (basically the "blue dots" of the original location). In addition, the list of comments / events is not showing the latest update on a side conversation as the latest update. As a summary, the new location does not give the agent the information that there are updates (and probably important) in a side conversations. Are you going to review this?
Thanks and best regards,
Alfredo
Hey there,
I can't find a Feedback topic for the new side conversations in Context Panel, so I'm just gonna drop it here.
We actually like the Side conversation in the Context Panel, but we deactivated it again - there were some challenges exactly at the time we activated it, which meant side conversations weren't working at all - so right now we are giving it a little more time to mature.
We did however experience this as exact feedback:
Thank you, Simon! I'll pass your comments along to our Product Management team.
Hey Lisa Kelly and Toby Sterrett, I can see the Side Conversation in the Context Panel in the live environment but not in Sandbox. Any idea why and how to enable it in Sandbox before implementing it in Live Production? Thanks!
Hi Jahn,
In your Sandbox environment, open this page:
Do you see an Enable side conversations setting?
See Activating side conversations in the context panel for details.
If you don't see that setting, let Toby know.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the response but yes it's not visible in Sandbox.
Tagging in Toby Sterrett to see if we can enable this in Sandbox please. Thank you!
hey, Jahn Bronilla and all who may be looking for this setting,
This feature is still in beta. You just need to sign up to it here to get it activated on your account:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd3S8mWwyK_BqpYMsDNVbHvS_EhUF96QAaHjI4gV4CLzdz8wA/viewform?pli=1&fbzx=5854364481432078932
Note:
1. The dev team will not email to tell you that it's been activated on your account. The setting to move it to the context panel will simply just appear once the ZD dev team have added your account to the beta.
2. You will need to resubmit this form for each Zendesk account you would like the setting on. E.g If you have a production account & a sandbox - submit this form twice against the URL for each of your instances.
Hope this helps. :)
Best,
Amie
HI Amie Brennan, understand that but I am actually quite surprised that it has been activated ASAP yesterday as I only fill out the form yesterday for both Sandbox and Live Prod.
sometimes the dev team are pretty quick ;) must have caught them on a good day lol
Hi!
Found UI bug related to Side Conversation in context panel:
Steps to reproduce:
1. Open side conversation tab
2. Open one of the email thread
3. Select “close tab” near submit button
4. Click “Submit”
After clicking submit, the page is getting stuck, and you see just a white screen without anything.
Hi support team,
I already created a ticket about this problem, and I was advised to leave feedback in the corresponding Article which mentioned in the initial comment
Hey Toby Sterrett Lisa Kelly - is there an update with the "blue dots" when an update is made with the side conversation?
I have completed the form, and ask for access. But nothing so far. Could you check it out? I would really like to try it out, and give you feedback abt it. Thanks!
Hey all, FYI we're no longer adding new accounts to the context panel migration beta as we tie up the loose ends before rolling out the option to all Agent Workspace side conversation users. Thanks for all the valuable feedback during the beta!
Hi Folks,
Thank you for your patience! Side conversations in the context panel is now available as a GA release. See Activating and deactivating side conversations in the context panel.
Hi all,
We have an issue with the side conversations in the context panel.
The formatting bar does not move while being scrolled after starting a new side conversation. If an agent has started a new side conversation the bar is not locked and the agent needs to scroll all the way down to be able to send the side conversation.
When answering an existing side conversation the bar is locked and moves a long when scrolling the field. Could this also be possible with a new side conversation? That would solve the issue.
Since the ticket status button is so very close agents sometimes confuse this button for the send button. And then tickets are closed without actually sending the conversation. This is causing major issues in some cases.
This issue has been reported using a feedback article; Send button in a new Side conversation – Zendesk help.
We were hoping this would be picked up soon since this is quit a new update.
Thank you, Marleen. I forwarded your comment along to the Side conversations product team. As a workaround, you can deactivate side conversations in the context panel, but still use them in tickets. When you deactivate side conversations in the context panel, side conversations are still available in your account, they just don’t appear in the context panel.
Please sign in to leave a comment.